Protest held amid anger over Brinklow green belt homes

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Protesters gathered as councillors prepared to discuss the local plan on Wednesday



Protesters have urged a council to reconsider where to build hundreds of new homes amid fears some areas could not support bigger communities.

About 150 campaigners assembled outside Rugby Town Hall on Wednesday ahead of a full borough council meeting which was due to consider the authority's local plan.

The chairman of Brinklow Parish Council, John Reid, was among the protesters and described it as a plan "to build in the wrong place".

Rugby Borough Council leader, Michael Moran, said the authority is launching an eight-week consultation to "listen to residents and parish councils".

Mr Reid said the council intended to build "enormous numbers of houses which we don't think are justified".

"They want to build them in the green belt because they've changed their mind about the green belt," he added.

"They now say if there are exceptional circumstances, they'll just move the boundary."

Councillors voted in their meeting for their preferred plan to go to an eight-week public consultation, starting on Monday.

A local plan sets out local planning policies for a council and identifies how land is used, determining what will be built where.

Council figures, external include allocations of 415 homes at Brinklow, 710 homes at Wolvey, 150 at Clifton-upon-Dunsmore, 210 at Dunchurch, 400 at Long Lawford, 525 for Hillmorton and 165 at Stretton-on-Dunsmore.

Mr Reid said Brinklow did not have enough doctors or dentists, there was one shop, the village did not have a cash machine and more homes would lead to "dreadful" traffic conditions.

"We don't want to say no. We just want to be reasonable," he added.

Linda Johnson, from Brinklow, said there have been no discussions about infrastructure, sewers and pumping stations.

The area flooded, she added, and claimed the scheme would see countryside and good drainage land concreted over.

"We've got a village with no schools in. We're way more than three miles away from the nearest secondary school," she said.

"Put houses where it's going to be convenient for people to live in those houses and where there is infrastructure already in place to stop flooding."

Denise Lewis, also from Brinklow, said: "It would double the size of the village."

She said the council should look at brownfield sites around Rugby.

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County council hits out at new housing plans



Plans for new homes around Rugby and surrounding villages have been opposed by Warwickshire County Council.

Rugby Borough Council set out the proposals in an update to its local plan, which states where new housing and businesses should go.

The county council echoed concerns raised by Conservative councillors in the borough that plans for an extra 3,500 homes were flawed.

Campaigners also protested in March over expansion planned for green belt areas, including Brinklow, Wolston, Wolvey and Long Lawford.

The county council said the strategy would lead to an increase in trips from villages to larger urban centres for day-to-day needs.

It anticipated "a significant increase" in secondary school pupils needing transport and an "increase in car trips".

Papers said: "The county council's preference is for larger standalone developments – these would deliver primary and secondary education solutions in one place."

The county council also called for further talks with the county's social care department and NHS if the borough presses ahead with proposed locations.

Information on Rugby Borough Council's website said it planned to provide homes "in a wider range of locations", as well as deliver more affordable housing.

It said: "Smaller scale sites around the borough are likely to be built more quickly than larger sites, while creating opportunities for smaller and medium-sized builders."

The borough council said reasons for not progressing larger developments included potential impact on services and roads.

It said proposals sought "to locate new housing in areas where existing infrastructure can be supported or improved", with a new secondary school planned north of Rugby.

The scale of planned housing in villages had been limited to the projected future capacity of the primary school in each area, with potential to expand them also considered, it said.